Combined paint brush and roller trays



Oct. 27, 1959 E. F. WHITE 2,909,797

COMBINED PAINT BRUSH AND ROLLER TRAYS Filed Sept. 17, 1957 INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent C) 2,909,797 COMBINED PAINT BRUSH AND ROLLER TRAYS Edgar F. White, Memphis, Tenn. Application September 17, 1957, Serial No. 684,496 4 Claims. (Cl. 15-121.2)

The present invention relates to a painting device, and more particularly to a painting device in the nature of atray for paint having associated therewith a holder for a paint brush.

There is now in widespread use a paint applicator in the form of a roller, having a handle thereon. Conventionally, the roller-type applicator is used with a tray so supported that its bottom is sloping. The slope of the bottom, together with side walls and a rear or end wall, forms a well or pocketto receive paint, and the roller is rolled or dipped into this well to gather up the paint, and is then applied to the surface to be painted, so that the paint is rolled on. Painting with a roller applicator is easy and convenient, and a large surface may be painted in a relatively short time. However, a disadvantage of the roller applicator lies in the fact that it cannot paint close to woodwork, such as a door or window molding, electric outlets, corners, and other spaces where there are fixtures or other objects protruding from the wall. To paint in such locations, it is the practice for painters to carry a separate brush, so that in those small areas which the roller applicator cannot reach, the brush is used.

Painters heretofore have carried the auxiliary brush in various ways, none of which has proven satisfactory. Some painters have attempted to lay the brush on the sloping bottom of the paint tray, but this has resulted either in the brush sliding downwardly into the paint and its handle getting covered with the paint, or else has interfered with the dipping of the roller into the paint. Other painters have attempted to simply hold the brush in one hand while using the roller applicator in the other, but this has not proven satisfactory because the brush either drips, comes into contact with a surface which it is not desired to paint, or slips from the painters grasp. Therefore, it can be seen that although the brush extends the usefulness of the roller applicator, no satisfactory way has been found to keep the brush when it is not being used, and to have it handy when it is desired to use it.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a painting device, which includes in coordinated fashion, a tray to hold the paint for the roller applicator together with a holder for the brush.

It is another object of the instant invention to provide a novel combination of paint brush and paint roller tray in which the bottom of the paint tray is inclined to provide a relatively deep reservoir at one end and in which the tray is shallow at the opposite end and in which the brush tray is located adjacent the shallow end to aid in balancing the device especially in opposition to the relatively heavy deep end of the tray and in which lateral spread of the combined brush tray and shallow end of the paint reservoir imparts stability to the entire device.

A further object of the invention is to provide a tray for a roller applicator together with a device that will hold the brush in such a manner as to facilitate the grasping thereof by the painter when he switches from the roller to brush.

. 2,909,797 Patented Oct. 27, 1959 paint on the brush may drain into the well of the main tray for the roller applicator.

Other objects and the nature and advantages of the instant invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention;

2 is a plan view of the embodiment shown in Fig. 3 is an elevational view of the embodiment shown in Fig. l; i

Fig. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in Fig. l a paint tray 10 having a sloping bottom 11, side walls 12 and 13 and a rear or end wall 14. A brush-holding tray 15 is positioned on the tray 11 adjacent the forward end thereof, and has a side wall 17 and a rear or end wall 18. As best seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the forward part of side wall 13 is a common wall between trays 10 and 15, and this common wall has an aperture 19 therethrough, so as to provide paint in tray 15 with access to tray 10.

A pair of supports 21 and 22 serve to elevate the forward ends of trays 10 and 15, so that the bottoms 11 and 16 slope downwardly toward the rear or end walls 14 and 18, respectively, thus forming a pocket or well in each of the trays.

While it is preferred, as shown, to have the bottoms 11 and 16 of the trays 10 and 15 coplanar, this arrangement is not necessary. In order for the paint which drains from the brush held in tray 15 to flow into the tray 10, it is necessary that the well of tray 15 be above the Well of tray 10, and that the aperture 19 provide communication between the wells thus placed. These relationships exist, of course, when the tray 10 is used in its normal fashion with the front end thereof elevated.

It will be understood that the entire assembly shown in Fig. 1 may be made substantially integrally, or alternatively, the two trays 10 and 15 may be separately made and attached together, as by soldering.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore the invention is not limited to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a combination paint brush and paint roller tray, walls forming a paint reservoir, said reservoir walls comprising a longitudinally inclined bottom and said reservoir having a shallow end and a deep end, a second set of walls forming a paint brush receptacle adjacent the shallow end of said reservoir, the transverse dimension of said combined paint brush receptacle and shallow end of said reservoir being relatively large as compared with the transverse dimension of said deep end of said reservoir, means for supporting said combined shallow end of said reservoir and said paint brush receptacle adjacent the ends of said relatively large transverse dimension so as to impart substantial balance and stability to said combination, said paint reservoir forming one leg of an L and said paint brush receptacle forming a second leg of said L, the bottom wall of said paint brush receptacle being maintained at least as high as the bottom wall at the shallow end of said reservoir, and communication passage means between said brush receptacle and said reservoir.

2. In a combination paint brush and paint roller tray, an inclined L-shaped bottom wall, -a margin for said L-shaped tray comprising six generally upstanding walls, a generally vertical partition separating one leg of said L from the second leg of said L, said partition beginning at the shallow end of said bottom wall and being parallel to the axis of one leg of said L and transverse to the axis of said second leg, a communicating passageway through the partition adjacent the bottom thereof and adjacent the end of the partition as opposed to the beginning of the partition, means forming a stable and balanced support for said combination, including the lower edge of said L-shapedbottom Wall and a pair of vertically disposed supporting elements positioned adjacent the two ends of the higher edge of said L-shaped bottom wall 3. In combination, a first tray for receiving paint having'a bottom, an end wall and side walls, means for supporting said tray with its bottom inclined and with the lower end of said bottom adjacent said end wall, whereby to form a well for paint, a second relatively smaller tray, said second tray having an inclined bottom, an end Wall and side Wall means defining a well, means attaching said second tray to and laterally of said first tray with the well thereof higher than the well of said first tray, and

means fluid connecting the well of said second tray with said first tray to permit liquid flow from the well of said second tray to said first tray.

4. In combination, -a first tray having a bottom, a rear wall and side walls, means for supporting said tray with its bottom inclined and with the end of said bottom adjacent said rear Wall lower than the opposite end thereof, a second tray having a side wall, a rear wall and a bottom inclined upwardly from the rear wall thereof, said second tray having a side wall common with a side wall of said first tray and having its rear wall forward of the rear wall of said first tray, andtan aperture through said common side wall adjacent the rear wall and bottom of said second tray.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,584,175 Irons May 11, 1926 1,748,789 Orkin Feb. 25, 1930 2,259,927 Dunton Oct. 21, 1941 2,661,858 Howell Dec. 8, 1953 2,705,334 Farrow Apr. 5, 1955 2,748,977 Sarchet June 5, 1956 2,798,239 Freund July 9, 1957 2,838,781 Molle June 17, 1958 

